Stanford Dean 'Yelled And Screamed'

Stanford GSB Dean Garth Saloner on campus – Ethan Baron photo

The signatories – 27 current and 19 former employees – demanded that Etchemendy refuse to give Saloner another five-year contract as dean. Etchemendy, in a deposition given in the lawsuit by former professor Jim Phills against Saloner and Stanford, said that by the time he received the letter, the decision to renew Saloner’s contract had already been made. Stanford spokesman Brad Hayward said the university “took a number of steps” in response to the letter, including inviting “fuller details” from signatories about their experiences at the GSB. An outside review of the allegations found no age or gender discrimination, Hayward said. The issues raised in the letter “arose largely out of a restricting of the GSB’s centers,” Hayward said.

Sandra Horbach heads up the advisory board for the Stanford GSB

ADVISORY COUNCIL AWARE OF PROBLEMS: FORMER STAFFER

One former high-ranking GSB staffer told Poets&Quants that she had send a copy of the letter to the business school’s Advisory Council, a group of prominent alumni who oversee the GSB and provide guidance. “They were warned,” the ex-staffer said. “Where were they when all of this was going on?”

Poets&Quants contacted a number of Advisory Council members, and called chair Sandra Horbach, a New York City managing director of financial services firm The Carlyle Group, but received no response. Saloner plans to remain as dean until the end of this academic year. The lawsuit by Phills is ongoing.

Poets&Quants asked the GSB to respond to the allegations by Hoffman and Deiglmeier; the school passed the inquiry to the University, whose spokesman Lisa Lapin noted that the GSB regularly conducts confidential surveys of all GSB staff about their work experiences. “As recently as this spring, 82% of GSB staff respondents said they would recommend the GSB as a place to work; 86% said they were satisfied with the GSB as a place to work; and 86% said they were treated with dignity and respect in their workplace,” Lapin said.

However, the Group of 46 letter questioned the confidentiality of the school’s annual employee survey, suggesting results may be inaccurate. “Given previous breaches in confidentiality, staff no longer trust the anonymity of the annual employee survey or the integrity of the process. As a result, many employees choose to not complete the survey or they simply submit “safe” responses,” the letter said.

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